It is a well-known process to repair fractures of long or pipe bones by inserting so-called bone pins in the medullary cavities of these bones. In this manner, fractured hip joints, fingers, legs and the like can be pinned so that an extensive and often impossible-to-apply cast can be done away with.
When, however, a vertebra is fractured, it is necessary either to fit the patient with a cumbersome and often ineffective cast, or to apply an external bone splint to the fractured vertebra or vertebrae. In the most common splinting method, an orthoplastic splint is secured via ligatures to the posterior clinoid process of the fractured vertebra. It has also been suggested to screw a metal plate to the vertebra to either side of the fracture thereof.
These last-described methods have the considerable disadvantage that it is necessary to apply them to the back or dorsal side of the vertebra. This is the side along which the nerve column runs, so that a substantial risk of damaging this nerve column and severely injuring the patient is present. Furthermore the relatively weak vertebral arches do not provide a good fixation for the known splints.